Today, there is significant interest in the electronic distribution of multimedia content such as, for example, documents, images, music, videos, etc. The interest in this type of media has especially grown in light of, for example, the mobility of users and their computers. Many Internet protocols allow users to download or otherwise obtain digital content from publishers that are in open and standard formats, such as hypertext markup language (HTML), portable document format (PDF), MP3, and the like.
However, the organizations that maintain and provide this content must often enforce various controls and restrictions over the content. For example, in order to comply with privacy regulations, such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), it is necessary to show diligence in the protection of personal information.
Digital rights management (DRM) solutions are a well known solution for controlling content. DRM solutions generally require that the content be distributed within a persistent encryption wrapper. Conventionally, DRM solutions provide its users a secret decryption key that provides temporary access to the content for some controlled purpose, such as viewing, printing, playing, etc. The decryption key is provided as part of a license that is granted to the user. In order to obtain the license, the user must often present credentials that authenticate their identity and, in some instances, make payment arrangements for the content.
Unfortunately, conventional DRM solutions can have many disadvantages. Once content is in the possession of a client, it is very difficult to control the manner in which the content is accessed and used. As a result, conventional DRM solutions are often inflexible in their rights management policies in terms of how the client uses content. For example, most DRM solutions require proprietary clients and other software to obtain, manage and interpret the rights, temporarily decrypt the encrypted content, and view/play it within a secure environment. Therefore, by their very nature, DRM solutions can be a restrictive solution in that it may be difficult for users to freely navigate.
However, in some instances, it may be sufficient to provide solutions that monitor the use of content without the tight controls of a typical DRM system. For example, it may be desirable to allow a user to have wide discretion on the use of content at their workstation, but at the same time monitor that use without interference.
Accordingly, it may be desirable to provide methods and systems that are capable of monitoring the use of content by a client that are less intrusive or restrictive than standard DRM solutions. It may also be desirable to monitor the content for non-compliant uses and provide a way to detect and report such uses.